The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News

Kathy Hochul pledges to speed up rent relief rollout

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 04:06 PM PDT

Within hours of becoming New York’s 57th governor, Kathy Hochul vowed to speed up the release of more than $2 billion in federal rent relief. Hochul on Tuesday said she plans to hire additional staffers to process applications for the state’s emergency rental assistance program, or ERAP, and is “assigning a top team to identify and remove any barriers that remain.” “I am not at all satisfied with the pace that this COVID relief is

Seaport developer, lender agree to mediation over troubled ‘leaning’ tower

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 02:04 PM PDT

The city halted work on the “leaning” South Street Seaport tower in April after the construction manager withdrew from the project. At the time, construction had already been stalled for months, and the project’s lender was fighting to take over the tower, attempting to foreclose on a $120 million loan. Now, the project’s developer and lender are trying to hash out an agreement to end their months-long feud and determine the future of the beleaguered

Equity, Toll Brothers partner on apartments for $1.9B

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 01:37 PM PDT

Americans are increasingly turning to rentals as they’re priced out of the housing market. Those who build and develop apartments are doing the same. Sam Zell’s Equity Residential and homebuilder Toll Brothers are teaming up to develop rental apartments and capitalize on the national trend, according to Bloomberg. The two companies have formed a partnership aimed at plowing $1.9 billion on the venture — and possibly more. The initial partnership will stretch over the next

Restaurants plead for more relief as Delta variant keeps diners away

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 01:02 PM PDT

The restaurant industry is coming back for seconds. The National Restaurant Association on Tuesday urged lawmakers to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, warning that increased costs and changes to consumer behavior amid rising caseloads has put restaurant owners under “crushing long-term debt loads.” “The small gains that our industry has made toward financial security are in danger of being wiped out, dashing the hopes of communities, entrepreneurs, and consumers nationwide,” the association wrote in a

Monmouth Real Estate board again affirms Equity merger

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 11:45 AM PDT

The drama over the future of Monmouth Real Estate continues, with the company’s board of directors once again affirming its choice for a merger with Sam Zell’s Equity Commonwealth. The company announced the board’s unanimous support for the EQC bid in a press release on Monday, saying that the board consulted with financial and legal advisors before agreeing that Equity’s bid trumped that of Barry Sterlincht’s Starwood. A primary reason cited for the board’s siding

Look out South Florida, here come the New York renters

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 11:00 AM PDT

Laura Flores is close to calling it quits on her apartment hunt. The 40-year-old Miami resident has done everything to position herself as the perfect candidate: She has a full-time job that allows for $2,400 in monthly rent, and she started searching four months before her current lease ends. Yet, she has only seen one apartment in Doral since June, despite reaching out to agents about dozens of units. The line at the Doral complex

New homes sales rise; still lag last year’s pace

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 10:37 AM PDT

New U.S. home sales rose slightly in July from the previous month, though they are still down 27 percent from a year earlier as builders grapple with supply-chain disruptions and rising costs of everything from labor to lumber to appliances. Sales of new single‐family houses in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 708,000, just 1 percent above the June total, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and

Introducing The Real Deal San Francisco

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 10:02 AM PDT

Ditch the suit and grab a hoodie – it’s colder than you think. TRD is thrilled to announce that our real estate coverage is expanding to a fifth market: San Francisco. Gone are the days of hitchhiking hippies hiding their stash from the cops. Today, cable cars run alongside chartered Google buses and boutique dispensaries are scattered like Starbucks locations throughout the Financial District. But the Bay Area is so much more than just tech

Ex-tenant sues Big Apple Management over Airbnb dispute

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 09:31 AM PDT

An unhappy ex-tenant is looking to take a bite out of Big Apple Properties. In a complaint filed Sunday, Miguel Pastor accused his former landlords of unlawfully evicting him and his roommate for renting one of the rooms in their Lenox Hill apartment on Airbnb. Pastor says Premier Holdings, LLC, a subsidiary of Big Apple, evicted him even as its parent company was operating Airbnbs out of its own properties. He also alleges that the

“Delta is affecting the when”: Covid variant complicates NYC’s recovery

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 09:05 AM PDT

One executive with a major stake in New York City’s office market believes a post-pandemic recovery is coming — he just isn’t sure when yet, with the Delta variant sowing chaos into the process. “I think the return to the office is a ‘when’ question, not an ‘if’ question,” Boston Properties CEO Owen Thomas told the New York Times. “Delta is affecting the when.” Boston Properties has felt the effects of the Delta variant firsthand.

AvantStay launches brokerage arm

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 08:30 AM PDT

In a move that goes beyond rentals, AvantStay has launched its brokerage arm. The short-term rental company, which now has over 600 homes throughout the U.S., announced that it will hire real estate agents to assist customers with finding secondary homes. Those homes may then be managed by AvantStay. To do so, AvantStay will be hiring its own real estate agents, as well as partnering with local brokerages. The company plans to hire 200 agents

Eyeing Sun Belt expansion, shared-living startup Bungalow raises $75M Series C

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 08:00 AM PDT

The shared-living rental platform Bungalow is expanding into five new cities after securing $75 million in Series C funding. The hedge fund Deer Park Road, an alternative asset manager and first-time investor in Bungalow, led the round, and all of the startup’s major existing investors, including Atomic, Founders Fund, Coatue and Khosla Ventures, participated. The Series C raise brings the company’s total funding to more than $150 million. “For this round we wanted to be

Oak Hill leads $327M bet on suburban office market

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 07:19 AM PDT

Will the pandemic bring new interest to the suburban office market? Oak Hill Advisors believes so. A group led by the alternative investment firm is putting $326.5 million in Workspace Property Trust, a Pennsylvania-based REIT specializing in suburban office properties near Tampa, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Minneapolis, among other markets, the Wall Street Journal reported. The firm already owns 10 million square feet of space, according to the Journal, and aims to use the debt and

Oh, honey: Goldman Sachs to add beehives to real estate assets across U.S.

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 06:20 AM PDT

That buzzing noise? If you’re a tenant of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, it might not be in your head. The investment giant is partnering with Alvéole — a Montreal-based company which brands itself as a “turnkey urban beekeeping service” — to bring beehives to several of its real estate assets under the guise of promoting sustainability. The program launched over the weekend and is expected to be in place at more than 30 properties by

120-acre parcel in Rockland County asks $10.5M

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 05:00 AM PDT

In the private gated community of Pierson Lakes, developer Byron-Hill Homebuilders is selling a 120-acre wooded and lakeside parcel for $10.5 million. The Rockland County parcel, 29 miles outside New York City, hosts 24 fully approved, five-acre custom home sites with an average purchase price per lot of $437,500. “The partners have just teed up phase two for a fresh development approach to this,” said Paul Adler, chief strategy officer at Rand Commercial, the broker

NYC overtakes San Francisco as most expensive city for renters: report

Posted: 24 Aug 2021 04:00 AM PDT

Call it a comeback — for New York City, at least. This month, the Big Apple overtook reigning champ San Francisco as the most expensive city for rentals, a report by apartment listing site Zumper found. A New York one-bedroom averaged $2,810 in August; similar digs in the Bay Area ran for $2,800. It’s a minor upset — sure — but one that showcases a major shift. “This was unthinkable even two years ago,” said